BIOTECH: Life Technologies, merged and growing

The sour economy is also a worry, Stafford wrote, although the economic stimulus plan could provide a boost.

'Consumables' are key

On the positive side, the company gets most of its revenue from "consumables," Stafford wrote. These are single-use products, such as genetic test kits or cell-culturing chemicals, that provide a recurring revenue stream. That's a more stable source of sales than reusable products.

In the short term, Lucier said, Life Technologies is most concerned with preserving continuity for its customers.

"We don' t want them to see much difference," Lucier said. "We're going to maintain two brands, one for consumables, one for sophisticated instruments. We're lucky to have two great brands we can continue to display and promote to the market. It's one company, two brands."

But behind the scenes, Life Technologies will be working to achieve economies of scale, including cross-training its sales force to sell both brands, he said.

The company will also develop and introduce new products, especially in the growing fields of genomics and stem cell research. To do that, Life Technologies is recruiting scientists and spending "north of" $300 million a year on product research.

Life Technologies began making products for "regenerative medicine," a category that includes stem cells, about two years ago, Lucier said.

Stem cells, primitive cells that turn into the various types of cells in the body, can be found in adults and in embryos. Scientists are developing disease treatments and tests with these cells. To do that, the cells need chemicals in which to grow, which Life Technologies provides.

"We recruited a number of prominent people, including Mahendra Rao, who had led the stem cell section for the National Institutes of Health, to build all the basic tools you need to do this type of work around stem cells," Lucier said. "Last year, we formed a cell therapy unit to work with companies, not only going into clinical trials with stem cells, but with all types of cells."

Biotech broadens

Agricultural biotechnology is another growth area. Earlier this month, the company released a new set of gene analysis tests under the TaqMan product line. These tests determine the level of RNA activity in livestock such as cows, chickens and horses, and in rice. The tests are intended to help improve crop yield and manage animals.

"The development of these TaqMan assays, for animal health, for food testing, for the testing of viruses when you're developing drugs -- this is the decentralization of biotechnology," Lucier said. "It's moving beyond a drug to everyday uses of biology."

That trend will continue and strengthen, Lucier said.

"If you look at the last century, after World War II, we were able to harness the physical sciences. If you asked somebody in 1945 what is physics, they would say, that is the bomb. That's the government lab in Los Alamos (where nuclear research is conducted). Fifty years after that, we moved our ability to harness electrons and light into computers and information systems.

"The same thing is now going on in the world of life sciences," Lucier said. "I think in the next decade or so, you're going to see this democratization of biotechnology into lots of different and applied markets that touch your everyday life. And when that happens, it's going to be incredibly stimulative to the U.S. economy."